Monday, June 16, 2014

Beauty Box 5 - June 2014

June is my second month receiving Beauty Box 5. I received my first month free and I wasn't blown away by it I decided to give it a try for another month. While it's not nearly as good of a value for the cost as my Ipsy subscription I do like how consistent they are with shipping. When you sign up for a BB5 subscription they say you'll receive a tracking email by the 8th of the month and for both months so far that I've been a subscriber I have received my e-mail by the 8th and the box has already been several days into the shipping process. That said, they do ship DHL to USPS so it still took until today for me to receive my box.

As I said last month Beauty Box 5 only releases one spoiler a month so the rest of the box is a surprise. This months spoiler was a full sized Nicka K New York nail polish in either a Lavender or Ripe Apple. I got the color Ripe Apple (the strange thing is that I can't find the name of the polish anywhere on the bottle, I just know it from the spoiler), which is nice but not very summery to me so I probably won't be wearing it soon. I did swatch it onto a nail swatch stick though and the formula seems decent, it is a pretty red creme polish with what seems to be very slight blue undertones. Nicka K is also a formaldehyde free polish. The value of this polish is $4.99.

The second item in my box was a 2 oz sample bottle of Vita Bath body wash in Wild Red Cherry. Vita Bath body washes are free of propylene glycol, mineral oils, and silicone. I've tried a little foil packet sample of their Dreamy Pink Frosting scented bodywash and liked it so I'm expecting that this will be a similar formula. There is definitely a strong cherry scent to this bodywash and it's a great size for travel. The value of this sample is $1.33.

Next I received a foil packet sample of Organix Coconut Water shampoo and conditioner. Organix is sulfate free and I currently use and love their Tea Tree and Mint shampoo and conditioner, so I'm happy to try another product in their line. However, I am pretty disappointed in the size of the sample, they're quite small foil packets like the ones that companies frequently send out for free. I'll only get one use out of these packets which makes it difficult to tell if it's something I like enough to repurchase. I would have preferred receiving a little one or two ounce bottle, even if it meant just getting either the shampoo or the conditioner instead of both. The foil packet size made this extremely difficult to value so I'm going to go with $1 (the full 13 oz size bottles retail for $7.99).

Fourth was a sample sized tube of Glam Natural mascara. This is mascara is listed as gluten-free, paraben-free, hypoallergenic, and vegan, which is great because I love trying more natural products. The wand looked practically empty when I pulled it out, but there was some mascara on it when I swiped it on my hand, it just seems to be a very light formula. This might work okay for me as I have long, dark lashes on my own so for daytime I don't like heavy mascaras. The full .25 oz size of this is $28 but there is no size listed on the sample tube. It doesn't look to be even quite half of full to me, so I'm going to estimate 1/3 of the full size and give it a value of $9.33.

Finally in my box I received 4 foil packet samples of the Elsor Introductory Collection Calming Kit, which is a paraben free skincare line. From the description card it looks like there was supposed to be a foil packet for each of the 4 products, Soothing Refiner & Cleanser, Replenishing Scrub, Comforting Mask, and Soothing Cream. However, I received 2 Soothing Cream packets and no Soothing Refiner & Cleanser. I'll try these out but again it's small foil packets that I'll only get one use out of each, so aside from the cream which I'll be able to try twice it will be hard to tell if these are actually worth a purchase. They are also quite expensive in full size, ranging from $28 to $65. Again foil packets are difficult to value so I'll give these a $4 estimate, $1 for each packet. This may seem cheap but there is very little product in each packet.

Overall this wasn't a very exciting box for me, I'll try everything but the number of foil packets was disappointing because these are so similar to samples I get quite a few of for free. I've come to a total estimated value of $20.65, which is more than the $12 I paid but several of the values were just guesses. I'm going to give them one more month to see if the third times a charm, but unless it's a lot better than this month I'll be cancelling after that. One nice thing this month is that they sent out little cards in the box with a new subscriber discount code to share. If you'd like to try Beauty Box 5 just use the code FREE614 to get your first box free (it will sign you up for a monthly subscription so you'll need to remember to cancel if you don't want to continue receiving it after your free box). This code will also work for $12 off a quarterly or annual subscription if you want to use it that way, which would bring an annual sub all the way down to $7.25/month. If you would like to sign up I also have a referral link here, you'll still be able to enter the free box code at checkout.